DOG TALK®, Nov. 5, 2011

November 4, 2011 By Paris Permenter & John Bigley

Every week on DOG TALK®, the weekly radio show by author and dog expert Tracie Hotchner, Tracie features a wide variety of pet-related guests and this week’s show is no exception. Discussions range from a new book on famous Rin Tin Tin to pheromone products for dogs to urinary diets for cats!

Susan Orlean‘s RIN TIN TIN deserved every bit of the rave review it got on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. Susan talks to Tracie about how the arc of the canine film star’s life and legend spans the history of dogs in our world, from war time to dog shows and how our “modern” understanding of the canine-human bond has actually been around a very long time.

Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins joins Tracie to explain how the pheromone products Feliway for cats and D.A.P. (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) work on our pets’ emotional equilibrium and the inestimable value to a little puppy of wearing a D.A.P. collar in the first months of adaptation away from his mother and litter. They also discuss the ethical travesty of vet-prescribed and scientifically engineered dry food that veterinarians sell for cats that 1) can cause urinary tract problems, 2) then sell a second food that is supposed to “cure” the urinary stones and crystals caused by the first food, 3) and then sell a third food intended to “cure” the second kind of urinary stones caused by the second food. And to top it off, feeding these urinary formulas of dry food to cats who do not yet have urinary crystals from dry food can actually cause the very problem, in a horrible daisy chain of unnecessary illness.

DOG TALK® airs Saturdays on NPR (or anytime via podcast). It is broadcast live on Saturdays at 11 AM in Southampton NY and LIVE at 1 PM Sundays on Robinhood radio in the Berkshires. This is one of two radio shows by pet author and canine nutrition expert Tracie Hotchner, who also hosts CAT CHAT® every Wednesday on Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius/XM Satellite.